The ways of theoretical practice
Althusser’s idea of a theoretical practice is one of his perennial accomplishments, but he never developed the theory of such a practice. This theory cannot be but a philosophy of science, a Wissenschaftstheorie.
After clarifying the role of the theory of a discipline in its own theoretical practice, he says that “we must rest content with these schematic gestures and not enter into the dialectic of this theoretical labour. They will suffice for an understanding of the fact that theoretical practice produces Generalities III by the work of Generality II on Generality I” (ibid.: 185). This may have been sufficient for his purpose of showing the novelty of Marx’s dialectics vis-a-vis that of Hegel, but it is certainly far from providing a complete, nay, even a sketch of a philosophy of science. Yet, Althusser’s insight is important to solve the problems posed in Chapter 1 for the S-View, namely the problem of lost beings, the problem of the unavailable stories, and the problem of the lost content. I think that these problems appear precisely because the process of production of the theories is forgotten. A proper rational reconstruction of a scientific process must take into account the problems and motivations that led to the conceptual apparatus of the theory. This implies a description of the phenomena the theory intends to represent and explain.3.4
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